Warm Feet, Cold Lips

We are excited to show my sister all the sites in Albania.  Today we took her to one of my favorite places, Kruje.  It is a mountain town where they have a museum about Albania's national hero, Skanderbeg.  They also have a very nice ethnographic museum and a cute little market that I LOVE.

The house on the left is the ethnographic museum. 
You can also see some of the castle ruins on the bottom left.

The tour of the museum wasn't that exciting because you have to have 8 people to get a tour and we only had 2. I told Maddie everything I could remember, but it wasn't much.  However, the tour guide (that didn't give us a tour) remembered me and Bumbles.  You see I went to Kruje with my parents when Bumbles was 5 days old and I was recovering from a c-section (not the best decision I've ever made).  He said Bumbles earned the title - Youngest Visitor Ever.

At first we didn't have a tour guide at the ethnographic museum either.  When Andi realized this he came to give us a tour of what he could remember.  Then the actual tour guide came.  He gave us the tour in English and did a pretty good job.  He asked me if he spoke good English.  I have to admit I just, "eh".  (I'm so mean).  Later I spoke to him in Albanian and he asked if he should do the tour in Albanian.  I reminded him that my sister only speaks English.  Finally when he said something was carved out of "olive nut" and "pine nut" I had to correct him (sorry, it's in my blood).  You have to understand that there is no "w" in the Albanian language so "wood" is hard from them to say.  Then he kept calling hope chests, treasure chests.  I had to correct him on that too.  At the end of the tour he thanked me.  I was just trying to help him improve.

We did a little shopping at the market.  I basically forced Maddie to get a pair of these.

They are wool socks with leather bottoms
I love them!

She was complaining of cold feet, which is a major problem here.  I knew a pair of these would keep her warm.  When we were looking for a pair the shopkeeper asked what color she liked.  I told him purple.  He handed her a blue pair and said, "these ought to do. They are the right size."  We insisted we wanted purple. 

I also got a pair for Bumbles hoping he couldn't kick them off, but he did.  I even talked Andi into ordering a pair.  We knew they wouldn't have his size, but we just wanted to ask for fun.  He wears size 13.  They are going to make him some and we plan to pick them up next month when my mom is here for a visit.  Are you okay with that, Mom?

I was happy that the loom lady remembered us.  Last time I went I couldn't walk through the market (remember 5 days after a c-section)so this nice lady invited me in to sit on her bench.  She was glad to see us.

Dark clouds started rolling in so we decided it was time to head home.  We were all hungry so we decided to stop for dinner.  Before we even got to the restaurant Super Jack was asking for ice cream.  Who eats ice cream on a cold day? I kept telling him I didn't think we'd be getting any.  Apparently I was wrong.

Surprisingly, ice cream doesn't tempt me as much as
chocolate.